Everyman

Everyman 3,984

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A good crossword from Everyman, not quite so easy as last week’s I found, but not too bad. It looks to me as if he has given up on the alliterative clues (remarkably clever while they lasted, but one must run out of such things) — the grid has very little colour in it — and instead has disciplined himself to having whole-word anagrams; or at any rate a large proportion of them. It’s hard enough to fill a grid and set a crossword without all these extra restrictions (the ‘primarily’ clue, the self-reference, now this anagram thing, and no doubt more that I haven’t noticed) that he imposes on himself.

Definitions underlined, in crimson. Anagram indicators shown like this *(anagram) or (anagram)*, indicators (homophone, reversal, anagram, juxtaposition etc) in italics, link-words in green.

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Everyman 3,981/5 February

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Another pleasing puzzle from Everyman for our Sunday entertainment, with a good variety of eminently gettable GK required for the solve and the usual trademark solutions on display. Abbreviations cd cryptic definition dd … Read more >>

Everyman 3,980

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Everything fits together very neatly in this, the getting-better-by-the-week Everyman, and judging from the time I took to solve it he is getting the standard more like that in the old days. Only one or two clues leave me feeling something is wrong, and quite possibly that’s my own fault.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (juxtaposition, reversal, homophone, anagram, etc.) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)*. Link-words in green.

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Everyman 3,977/8 January

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Another pleasing Sunday puzzle from Everyman to challenge the beginners, entertain the more experienced and give an adrenalin rush to those who like to keep a record of the paired answers and follow-on … Read more >>

Everyman 3,976

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Have you noticed that Everyman crosswords are always of 28 letters? So far as I can see, anyway. Why should the setter slave away for those extra few clues? Not that it matters. The standard is good, as it has been becoming for a while; good surfaces (apart from 15ac, 7dn and 19dn I think) and sound clueing, with the usual constraints of the first letters clue, the self-referential clue, and the alliterative clues. Actually I can’t see any of the last here — it looks as if Everyman has deviated from the norm and has included two long answers of two words, with the same first word.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (anagram, homophone, reversal, etc. in italics). Link-words in green.

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Everyman 3,973

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Everyman gets better and better. There are very few clues here that are odd, although perhaps the surfaces to 1ac, 19ac and 21dn are a bit thin. I’m afraid I need a bit of help with 13dn. We have the usual self-referential clue (just), the first letters clue, and the rhyming couplet (also something else that I can’t remember. No doubt it will be pointed out). Quite a restriction for Everyman to impose on himself.

You may have missed this, where Everyman is outed.

Definitions underlined in crimson. Indicators (homophone, hidden, anagram etc.) in italics. Link-words in green.

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Everyman 3,970/13 November

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Another solid puzzle from Everyman, with the usual trademarks: the paired clues, the self-reference and the initial letter cad. Abbreviations cd cryptic definition dd double definition cad clue as definition (xxxx)* anagram anagrind … Read more >>